Elizabet Helsing and husband Graham Dukes appear to be typing a letter.. It was several decades ago that we first ran into the concept of processing. At that time it was applied to cheese; processed cheese looked like soap and tasted much the same. Later on they processed foods in general, textiles and goodness knows…
Marching on
The protest march last Saturday was my umpteenth. There was chanting, banner waving and ululation as my wife and I walked slowly through the centre of London from Temple, along the Embankment and up to the Treasury where we stopped for the speeches. We were protesting about the excessive burden borne by women in the…
Space invaders
Sharing public space can be difficult. Yes, when there is plenty of it around, problems are less likely to occur. But for town dwellers, manoeuvring where space is limited, things are different and negotiation is often needed. There are rules of conduct, such as "first-come-first-served" and the offer of “after you” when for example, approaching…
Once upon a moonless night
The road between us and the neighbouring village - the strangely named Mejou Roz - has no frills. It runs around fields, through a hamlet and looks across to the sea. It has no markings, no kerb, no street lamps and it is very winding - 4km for us, two for the crows. It is…
Shell shocked
Just a short walk down the road from our cottage in France there is a most beautiful beach. It stretches in a long curve as far as the eye can see and at low tide it takes 10 minutes simply to get to the sea for a paddle. The sand is a fine white-yellow and…
Unidentified knitted object
Last Saturday proved difficult. Friends came for tea and on arrival gave me a present. I unwrapped it and thanked them but hesitantly. I am not normally ill at ease but in these gift situations the feeling is a famliar one. Rarely a month goes by without gifts changing hands, so, in addition to the…
A sense of space and time
Doesn’t everyone occasionally indulge in escapism? However rewarding life may be, we may want to slip away from it, now and again, just for a while. The one solemnly meditates; the other just daydreams. I admit to having tried at some such moments to slip into another dimension. The microscope provided a glimpse of the…
Hanging on
If there are such things as retrospective anxiety attacks, then I have just had another. I am talking about sudden flashbacks, often of close shaves, where the memories momentarily send shivers of anxiety down one’s spine. So, occasionally, I will get a flashback to that moment when, as a teenager, I am clinging to a…